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I have a question that I've been debating with some co-workers. We are using conical springs (tapered) that most of the time in our application fully compress once engaged. We are measuring minute changes in temperature and I was wondering if a spring diffuses more heat compressed or relaxed, here are the points:- Compressed: - This makes the spring one solid shallow cone, I believe this would increase conductivity from surface-to-surface as everything is touching, however it is somehow "tangential" (quotation marks cause it's not perfectly tangential) so the actual area for heat transfer is variable and looks like a cartoonish-caterpillar. Since we are looking for very small changes in temperature, this would increase conductivity but substantially reduce convection (since the inside of the spring is now isolated from the ambient, and the contact area with air is also reduced into this cartoonish caterpillar shape
- Relaxed: - This makes the spring as a coil, which would remind me of a heat-sink from a computer CPU, it has a lot of surface area that is in constant heat exchange with ambient due to convection, plus the coduction of the spring itself as its x-sectional area (this would be the minor heat loss)
Just wanted some opinions on this matter and which one you believe could contribute more to a change in temperature.
If you care for more details, we have an assembly of Spring touching temperature sensor touching plate to be measured, and we are recording changes of around .060 - .1°C difference when the spring is compressed vs relaxed.
- Relaxed: - This makes the spring as a coil, which would remind me of a heat-sink from a computer CPU, it has a lot of surface area that is in constant heat exchange with ambient due to convection, plus the coduction of the spring itself as its x-sectional area (this would be the minor heat loss)
Just wanted some opinions on this matter and which one you believe could contribute more to a change in temperature.
If you care for more details, we have an assembly of Spring touching temperature sensor touching plate to be measured, and we are recording changes of around .060 - .1°C difference when the spring is compressed vs relaxed.